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As Oil Industry Thrives,
Shell Settles Inquiries

By

Joseph Schuman The Wall Street Journal Online

Updated July 29, 2004 5:36 p.m. ET

The spring of 2004 was a good one for most of the world's petroleum producers, a time when the growing demand for oil fueled by economic growth in China, the U.S. and elsewhere combined with threats to the supply side of crude in the Middle East to boost prices and fatten the petro-giants downstream refining and sales margins. But it wasn't a happy time for Royal Dutch/Shell Group, which was reeling from repeated revelations about inflated oil reserves on its books that led to a shake up of its leadership. Today, Shell reported strong earnings for the period and, more importantly, said it agreed to settle U.S. and...